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Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Russia: Oil facilities ablaze after massive Ukrainian drone attack
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“At least one person has been killed, and five others injured after Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia, one of Kyiv’s largest aerial strikes in the war. St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said firefighters were battling fires sparked by Sunday’s attacks on the St Petersburg oil terminal, the Ruchi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the Kolpinsky district south of the city. … The strikes came as tensions between Kyiv and Washington deepened, with US President Donald Trump criticising Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, and the prospect of further US sanctions against Moscow still uncertain.” (10/19/26)
- MA: Republican lieutenant governor candidate suspends campaign after OUI arrest
Source: NBC News
“A candidate for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Republican Shawn Oliver, was arrested on drunken driving charges after a crash late Saturday that left several parked vehicles damaged and his own overturned, police said. On Sunday, Oliver, a New Bedford City Council member, announced he was suspending his campaign, as his running mate, Mike Minogue, had called for him to do. … He faces charges of operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, a marked lanes violation and speeding, New Bedford police said Sunday. They said Oliver’s vehicle overturned after it hit five parked vehicles, two of which were extensively damaged, near a shopping plaza on Dartmouth Street about 11:40 p.m.” (10/18/26)
- Ebola: Kenya cases rise to eight, spreads to eighth Congo province
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Kenya’s Health Ministry on Sunday confirmed another case of Ebola, bringing the number of confirmed infections in the country to eight. News of another patient in the East African state came as health officials in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported that the outbreak there had spread to an eighth province. … It’s currently the deadliest outbreak in Congo’s history with authorities recording at least 9,400 cases, including over 4,500 deaths, in the outbreak declared in mid-May.” (10/18/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/ebola-kenya-cases-rise-to-8-spreads-to-8th-congo-province/a-79694614
- Senile reality TV star endorses fugitive war crimes suspect for reelection
Source: CBS News
“President Trump on Sunday endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection, saying on social media that he ‘has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran.’ This is a coveted boost for Netanyahu because of Mr. Trump’s popularity in Israel but one that the U.S. leader withheld for months as their strategies in the Middle East diverged. … Israelis are set to vote on Oct. 27, which will be the first national elections since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.” (10/18/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-endorses-israel-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-reelection/
- Iran: Regime says offer, conditions to reopen Strait of Hormuz still on
Source: Yahoo! News
“Iran’s foreign minister said Sunday the Strait of Hormuz would reopen within days if the U.S. complies with the conditions set out in the seven-day ceasefire proposal presented in September, which called for an end to the American naval blockade, lifting sanctions on Iranian oil and a ceasefire on all fronts.The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations monitoring agency said at least 10 vessels have been attacked in or near the Strait of Hormuz since last Sunday, a weekly high since war broke out in February, and 23 attacks were recorded since the start of the month, almost double the average.” (10/18/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/iran-says-strait-hormuz-reopen-122000272.html
- UK: Scottish regime set to drop opposition to new oil and gas fields
Source: Politico
“The SNP-led Scottish government is set to drop its long-standing opposition to new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Two senior members of the Scottish government — granted anonymity to discuss a strategy not yet ready for publication — told POLITICO the government will revise its energy plans to take a more pro-oil and gas exploration position. Tests on compatibility with the government’s climate targets will remain, but Scotland will no longer begin from a position of opposition to new oil and gas projects. The move marks a major change in the Scottish government’s energy policy.” (10/16/26)
- KS: Truck drives through soccer field during game, killing two and hospitalizing 11
Source: Associated Press
“A woman drove a truck through a soccer field during a youth game in Kansas on Saturday, killing two people and sending 11 other victims to the hospital, authorities said. A 6-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man were killed, Wichita Police Capt. Aaron Moses said. The ages of the injured people ranged from 5 to 68. Moses said the driver, a 34-year-old, was in custody. He did not say whether authorities believe it was intentional.” (10/18/26)
- Iran: Parliament Approves Mehrdad Akhlaqi as Minister of Defence
Source: US News & World Report
“Iran’s parliament approved Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi as defence minister on Sunday, ending months of interim leadership at the ministry and placing a former defence sector veteran in charge of the country’s defence production and procurement apparatus. Akhlaqi replaces Majid Ebn al-Reza, who took over in an interim capacity after then Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh was killed by US-Israeli strikes in February. Akhlaqi has spent decades in Iran’s defence industry and has held senior roles in its aerospace and missile sectors. He is subject to US and EU sanctions over his work in Iran’s defence sector. In a programme presented to lawmakers, Akhlaqi pledged to rebuild the country’s military-industrial infrastructure, accelerate the development of defence technologies and expand cooperation with private-sector companies.” (10/18/26)
- Rubio says Trump to “analyze” global impact of Russia sanctions during pause
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that US President Donald Trump’s waiver of sweeping sanctions and tariffs on Russia would be a 60-day pause to ‘analyse’ their impact on the global economy. … US lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have sharply criticised Trump after he signed an executive order Friday that waived sweeping sanctions and tariffs targeting Russia – measures adopted by Congress last month. The law passed in September, and signed by Trump, included sanctions targeting Russian officials, oligarchs and financial institutions, and provided Trump with the authority to impose sanctions on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.” (10/18/26)
- France: Paris police report 855 arrests after violent clashes and looting during protests
Source: ABC News
“Paris police said Sunday that 855 people were arrested in the French capital region after violent groups clashed with officers and looted shops during a protest march that drew about 110,000 people who denounced rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. Violent clashes, fires and looting on Saturday marred demonstrations across France. Authorities said groups of masked protesters targeted public buildings, including city halls and local government offices. Authorities said about 550,000 people took part in protests across France, while organizers counted about 800,000.” (10/18/26)
- Albania: Anti-government protesters clash with police in Tirana
Source: NBC News
“Thousands of young Albanians gathered outside the Education Ministry in the center of the capital Tirana on Saturday on the fifth day of a growing student-led movement to force Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign. The protest turned violent when a group of young people wearing masks hurled rocks at riot police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas and a water cannon. Demonstrations over corruption and a lack of jobs have begun spreading throughout Albania. In Tirana this week, protesters smashed windows, set alight government buildings and clashed with police.” (10/17/26)
- Unsealed record shed light on OJ Simpson murder case
Source: New York Times
“Prosecutors who had failed to convict Mr. Simpson of murder have given little credence to the notion of an accomplice. The police, too. Many people considered the details of Mr. Simpson’s hypothetical confession a fantasy, part of a desperate effort to cash in on his waning fame and notoriety amid growing money struggles and scrapes with the law. But today, more than 30 years after the ‘trial of the century,’ newly uncovered evidence suggests that Mr. Simpson’s account should not have been so readily dismissed. A New York Times examination, based on recently unsealed court files, interviews and other evidence, details long-hidden information about the missing murder weapon, Mr. Simpson’s supposed efforts to cover up the crime, as well as the possibility of an accomplice. … The double murder prosecution of Mr. Simpson, who was acquitted by a jury, remains one of the most scrutinized cases in popular culture, spawning endless theories.” (10/18/26)
- North Korea: Photos show luxury boat with 50m pool and water slides near Kim Jong Un’s summer retreat
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“An 80m (263ft) luxury vessel has been repeatedly spotted in satellite images off North Korea’s Wonsan coast from July to mid-October this year. What stands out is the 50m swimming pool along the deck, with a cluster of waterslides at one end. After sitting idle for months at a maintenance facility, it relocated in early July to waters off a strip of coastline known as the Kalma Peninsula. This is close to Wonsan, a seaside resort with a sprawling villa used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family. It was not the only large vessel on the move. A handful of others were also repeatedly seen near Kim’s villa, in satellite images analysed by the BBC. The vessels are widely believed to be used by Kim and his family.” (10/17/26)
- Pope Leo discharged from hospital after lung cancer surgery
Source: NBC News
“Pope Leo XIV was discharged from the hospital on Saturday after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, with his surgeon saying he could be fully recovered in about 10 days. Dr. Stefano Margaritora told Vatican News there were ‘no clinical reasons’ preventing the pontiff from making his planned trip to Latin America next month. The pontiff, who had been recovering at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since Tuesday, walked out unaided before spending a couple of minutes speaking with well-wishers. He appeared to accept a gift of a homemade smiling Pope figure before getting in a car and being driven back to the Vatican.” (10/17/26)
- Palstine: Israeli squatters attack European diplomats
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Israeli [squatter] militants have attacked European diplomats, a French mayor and the archbishop of Cambrai in Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, injuring three people and damaging a car, in the latest violent attempt to prevent Palestinians from harvesting olives on their own land. Bernard Baudoux, mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, was wearing his red, white and blue sash of office and attempting to enter a vehicle with diplomatic plates when he was assaulted and knocked to the ground on Saturday. … [Squatters] first attacked a group working on the lower slopes of hills near Taybeh. As well as stealing olives, they kicked, abused and assaulted a Palestinian woman in her 70s and beat a man so badly he needed six stitches for a head injury. Then they approached the diplomats and Badoux, who was in Taybeh for the launch of a twinning agreement with his town in northern France.” (10/17/26)
- Judge dismisses child sex abuse charges against actor Timothy Busfield
Source: United Press International
“A judge dismissed child sex abuse charges against actor Timothy Busfield on Friday because, he said, prosecutors ‘failed to act in a fair and impartial manner.’ Busfield, 69, was indicted by a grand jury in New Mexico in February on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child on the set of the Fox television series The Cleaning Lady. Busfield, who acted in and directed the show from 2022 to 2024, was indicted after accusations of groping twin boys who worked as child actors on the show. … He denied all charges, and said the boys’ parents were seeking ‘revenge’ after the child actors were not invited back for the show’s final season, Variety reported.” (10/16/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/10/16/timothy-busfield-sex-abuse-dismissed/1351792189200/
- Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“A nursery owner and five members of her staff have been jailed after they were found to have poisoned more than 200 children with lead-tainted food. Li Huifang, who operated the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in the Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media. In July 2025, 247 pupils and staff at the nursery were found to have abnormally high blood lead levels after children began falling ill. A report into the incident found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to ‘enhance the look’ of its meals to attract more students – despite the paint being being clearly marked as such. In addition to the sentence, the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) of Li’s personal assets, state broadcaster CCTV reported.” (10/17/26)
- Guatemala: Former prosecutor shot dead at sports centre
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Lawyer Juan Francisco Solorzano Foppa, known for his high-profile cases against powerful businessmen in Guatemala, has died after being shot by two men during a visit to a sports centre. The attack on Saturday at the Campo Marte sports complex in Guatemala City resulted in the deaths of Foppa and another man, Gustavo Adolfo Aguilar Gamarro, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Foppa was a 43-year-old former prosecutor and anticorruption lawyer who denounced wrongdoing by some of Guatemala’s most powerful politicians, business leaders and companies, and in 2023 briefly joined the defence team of a prominent journalist.” (10/18/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/18/guatemalan-former-prosecutor-shot-dead-at-sports-centre
- CA: Officers in Santa Cruz chase after world’s second-largest bird
Source: SFGate
“California Highway Patrol officers had a highly unusual task this week — catching the second-largest bird in the world. California Highway Patrol officers in Santa Cruz received several calls about an emu walking into traffic at Harper Street and 17th Avenue. The big bird had escaped from its owner and traipsed its way in and out of traffic. ‘While we often deal with dogs, cats, deer, and occasionally birds, an emu was unexpected!’ CHP Santa Cruz said on Facebook. An emu loose on a highway can pose a deadly risk to drivers if struck by a vehicle, according to the American Emu Association. The owner quickly arrived to recover their feathered friend, and with the help of the officers, the owner was able to corral the animal and get it back home.” (10/16/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/emu-rescue-santa-cruz-22481094.php
- Do We Actually Need Ambassadors?
Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Van Buren“The struggle over who is better at the job, political appointees or careerists, will never conclusively end. It has been a factor of American diplomacy for decades, under all flavors of administrations. The mainstream media negatively focus on some of Trump’s ambassadorial choices, but to anyone familiar with diplomacy it is nothing more than another round in a century-old political argument. The new question, unique to the second Trump administration, is whether or not the president should appoint anyone at all, career or political, to a particular ambassadorial job. … Ambassadors are increasingly curiosities left over from the 19th century, a past when Washington, DC, needed trusted representatives empowered to make decisions a world away. Embassies as they exist today were created for a world without Zoom, encrypted messaging, presidential and cabinet travel, celebrity special envoys, global media reporting, and easy direct leader-to-leader calls.” (10/19/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/do-we-actually-need-ambassadors/
- Bitter Pills – Trump Takes Americans Like Me Hostage for Big Pharma
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard“President Trump’s protectionism gives Ameircans the same ‘protection’ that the wolf gave to the lamb. The Food and Drug Administration and Customs Border Protection will effectively ban almost all personal prescription imports in January. Millions of Americans who rely on Canadian pharmacies will be whipsawed by higher prices. The new policy is spurred by Trump’s hostility to Canada and his devotion to protecting Big Pharma profits.” (10/18/26)
- Even Perfect Liberal Governance Could Not Have Stopped Reactionary Populism
Source: The UnPopulist
by Jonathan Rauch“What in the world is going on? Why are Western publics so disillusioned with liberalism? Why gravitate to authoritarian populism, which is invariably corrupt, repressive, and incompetent? Why now, when Western countries are objectively richer and safer than any time before the end of the Cold War—if not ever? … While no one disputes that liberal governments committed mistakes and oversights, none of their failings explains, much less justifies, the movement of an enviably privileged electorate like Germany’s toward a party like AfD.” (10/18/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/even-perfect-liberal-governance-could
- Report Expunged, But Hope Florida Springs Eternal
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Several persons within and around the executive branch of Florida’s government conspired to misappropriate $10 million in taxpayer money, funnel that money through a charity founded by the governor’s wife, give it to Political Action Committees operated by the future state attorney general, and spend it to rig an election. … Courts can expunge reports, but once the truth is out, it stays out.” (10/18/26)
- Trump’s War With Iran Pushed Him To Waive a Century-Old Shipping Law. Commerce Boomed.
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm“America’s interminable war with Iran has killed thousands, disrupted commerce that flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and raised prices on the home front. But there may be one silver lining. In an attempt to lower gas prices that spiked because of the war, the Trump administration has repeatedly issued waivers of the Jones Act, a century-old law that requires all goods moved between American ports to be carried on American-built, American-crewed ships. With the law (temporarily) not being enforced, commerce has exploded.” (for publication 11/26)
https://reason.com/2026/10/18/a-world-without-the-jones-act/
- Why are we ruled by barbarians?
Source: Noahpinion
by Noah Smith“Years ago, I thought it was valuable for me to understand the depth of the human capacity for atrocity, so I made myself look at photos and videos of some of the worst things people had done to each other. So in 2015, I made myself watch the full, unedited video of ISIS burning a man alive in a cage. … I thought of that video when I heard about the Trump administration’s plan to stage a public televised execution by firing squad. … Seemingly swayed by the bad polling, Trump cancelled the idea, declaring that the execution wouldn’t be livestreamed. But the episode has revealed something important about the nature of the men who now rule America. Their values and their worldview are not the same as those of the average American. They are, in many ways, premodern and barbaric.” (10/18/26)
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-are-we-ruled-by-barbarians
- Delayed Accountability in the American Political Class, Part Two
Source: American Greatness
by Stu Cvrk“Failing to prosecute politically connected wrongdoers promptly and with the same severity applied to ordinary citizens emboldens further and more brazen misconduct by the individuals who escape consequence. Furthermore, non-enforcement itself functions as an incentive structure to others contemplating corrupt actions. And a justice system that appears, case after case, to apply one set of rules to the politically connected and another to everyone else breeds cynicism and corrodes public trust in the institutions responsible for enforcing the law. The purpose of this article is to test that well-established pattern against four decades-long case studies plus three additional cases that have matured substantially in the years since the political events that first drew scrutiny. Part I covered Edward Kennedy and the Clintons; this part examines John Kerry, John Brennan, James Comey, Hunter Biden, and the Uranium One case.” (10/16/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/16/delayed-accountability-in-the-american-political-class-part-two/
- A Long, Dark Summer
Source: Desultory Scribblings
by Tyler Harris“‘These are the times that try men’s souls’ So wrote Thomas Paine 250 years ago about a long, dark winter when the young nation’s fortunes looked so bleak that many feared it might yet arrive stillborn. Now, the eldest and most celebrated liberal democracy on Earth finds herself again contemplating the grave. Even far on the exurban outskirts of our nation’s capital, a capital now home to the world’s most militarized algae plume, the steady drumbeat of failure wafts out from its source like a relentless, festering wind. It’s enough to make anyone despair.” (10/16/26)
- Libertarianism and Democracy Revisited — A Rejoinder to Matt Zwolinski
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin“Tyranny of the majority is obviously a problem distinctive to democracy. The same goes for rational voter ignorance, which arises from the perverse incentive structure of individual voters, who have only an infinitesimally small chance of influencing electoral outcomes. And, while illiberal forces can and do seize power under authoritarian systems, the pathways democracies (usually involving the electoral process) create for them are distinctive.” (10/17/26)
- All Our Problems Are Caused By Believed Narrative
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“People are manipulated into believing the story that Israel’s existence must be preserved at all cost because of this religious belief or that political ideology. People are manipulated into believing the story that western elections are real and that voting in the two-party system is the only path toward beneficial policies. People are manipulated into believing the story that capitalism is the best possible system, and that socialism always fails (organically, all by itself) because its tenets go against human nature. People are manipulated into believing the story that the US-led liberal world order, while perhaps flawed, is still our best shot at a just and stable world. People are manipulated into believing the story that the mass media are telling us the truth about our society and the world, and that everything works pretty much the way we were taught in school.” (10/18/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/10/18/all-our-problems-are-caused-by-believed-narrative/
- Trump, Like Biden, Has Become a President of Inflation and War
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III“In the last consumer price index report before the midterm elections, inflation was up to 3.7 percent. It’s still a far cry from the 9.1 percent peak under former President Joe Biden, but that offers little comfort to vulnerable congressional Republicans. President Donald Trump’s job approval rating on the economy sits at just 33.8 percent in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. … It is against this backdrop that Republicans will be defending their narrow congressional majorities. And while the polls in some of the most competitive Senate races look iffy, the national electoral environment is indisputably bad for the GOP. These dire conditions have arisen as a result of Trump’s own choices. The biggest driver of the most recent inflation is a spike in energy prices caused by the Iran war.” (10/17/26)
- Democrats’ “debanking” abuses show they’re the big threat to democracy
Source: New York Post
by staff“With Democrats poised to regain much of their Washington muscle, it’s ever more urgent to notice how they abused that power so recently. Consider Wednesday’s blockbuster report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency outlining how nine big banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, used purely political criteria to deny services to perfectly lawful consumers — when getting ‘debanked’ is often a financial death sentence. And the debankers regularly relied on the hatemongering-for-profit Southern Poverty Law Center as an authority for who to ban. This was no small abuse: The OCC investigation covered more than 100,000 consumer complaints and 50,000 internal bank documents. A JPMorgan payment platform booted merchants with ‘MAGA’ and ‘America First’ in their profiles — and another for working with a group whose ‘crime’ was that a member accurately described the Black Lives Matter movement as Marxist.” (10/17/26)
- Digital ID Will Change the Internet Forever
Source: CounterPunch
by Naomi Brockwell“Late on the night of September 30, with the Senate about to leave town for a month, a bipartisan group of senators asked their colleagues to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) by unanimous consent. A single objection from Senator Rand Paul that thwarted the bill. For now. KOSA ostensibly aims to protect children by making platforms legally responsible for harms to minors. This sounds like something nobody could oppose, but it is a Trojan horse. If politicians really wanted to protect children, they would push for devices built specifically for kids and ask nothing of adults. Instead, KOSA is a step towards forcing everyone on the internet to verify their real identity, until we can’t read a digital book, watch a YouTube video, or chat with a friend without first proving exactly who we are.” (10/16/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/16/digital-id-will-change-the-internet-forever/
- Seven Questions a 2026 Candidate Must Get Right to Earn Your Vote on Election Day
Source: Common Dreams
by Kirk Freudenburg“I happen to live in a state where MAGA enthusiasms are relatively subdued, and where Republicans skew toward old-school conservatism rather than Q-Anon crazy. The old Prescott Bush world of Connecticut. The state’s senators and the representative of my congressional district do an ‘admirable enough’ job representing my interests and advocating for good causes, giving me just enough to complain about, but not too much. Given the times we live in, and with the midterms looming large, I rather wish I could cast a ballot in a state that where my vote might make a bigger difference; a state where senators and congressional representatives have gotten away with far too much, often for far too long. Mind you, I don’t want to live in such a place, I just want to vote there.” (10/17/26)
- After a congressman challenged a student reporter’s right to record, here’s what journalists should know
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“When a congressman tried to stop her from recording a press conference, student journalist Cat Murphy stood her ground. The congressman, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, mistakenly claimed that Maryland’s all-party consent law allowed him to ask Murphy to turn off her cameras, even going so far as to ask the police to intervene, but the law didn’t actually apply in that context. Murphy knew this and asserted her First Amendment right to continue documenting the event. … The interaction between Harris and Murphy occurred during a public press gaggle, in which a public official invited reporters to ask questions and multiple cameras were plainly recording. As a result, this conversation is not the type Maryland’s recording law was meant to protect, and Murphy was right to stand her ground.” (10/16/26)
- A New Theory of the Just Price
Source: The Bleeding Heart Libertarian
by Matt Zwolinski“The idea that the just price is the market price isn’t new. The medieval Scholastics held a version of it. But the tradition never had a good account of why the market price should carry moral weight, and once economists showed that prices are set by impersonal supply and demand, the whole idea of a ‘just price’ came to look like a confusion. My paper tries to take the dynamic character of markets seriously, and to make it the cornerstone of a new theory of the just price. In essence, my claim is that the competitive market process, when it is operating, confers a presumption of justice on the prices it produces.” (10/16/26)
https://bleedingheartlibertarian.substack.com/p/a-new-theory-of-the-just-price
- A Perpetual Populist Cycle
Source: Persuasion
by Damon Linker“The midterm elections are now less than three weeks away—and I think we’ve seen more than enough to conclude that, short of a systemic polling error on a scale surpassing anything we have seen before, Republicans are going to get their asses kicked. … Assuming that’s how things play out and the Democrats take control of both houses of Congress, what will that mean for the short- and medium-term future of the country? The short answer, I’m afraid, is not much. The political fact of our time is that ours is a populist era.” (10/16/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/not-to-be-a-pessimist-but-these-midterms
- Columbia Group Cancels “Press Freedom” Event After Student Column Criticizes Cornell Case Coverage
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley“‘Who Gets to Tell the Story?’ That question was supposed to be the theme of a ‘press freedom’ event this week at Columbia University, home to one of the world’s leading journalism schools. However, as first reported by the Columbia Spectator, the event was canceled after student journalists had the audacity of offering their own views on the coverage of the alleged Cornell rape case. After the independent student newspaper The Sundial ran a column by deputy editor Nikos Mohammadi and writer Christina Ma criticizing the one-sided coverage of the allegations, the Columbia students went into a familiar groupthink, cancel mode. The students were shocked that Mohammadi and Ma took the invitation to ‘tell the story’ literally by offering a different perspective on the still developing case.” (10/17/26)
- The Pluralism Gap
Source: The Realist Review
by James W Carden“[A]t the heart of the new Progressive foreign policy is a very old and very tired idea indeed, and one that is shared with equal fervor by corporate Democrats such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Jake Sullivan, and the legacy media: That the post-World War II global order must be defended against all comers. Progressives like Sanders and AOC are able to separate themselves from corporatists like Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer by camouflaging their principal concern—the preservation of American global ‘leadership’—through repeated references to their own parochial social concerns. In other words, the foreign policy alternative politicians like Sanders and his proteges within certain precincts of what I call Restraint, Inc. (including the Center for International Policy, the Institute for Policy Studies, and most (but not all) of the researchers and scholars at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft) is no alternative at all.” (10/16/26)
- What James Talarico Believes
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“I have come to believe that James Talarico, the Democrats’ Senate candidate in Texas, is generally sincere in his beliefs. I trust he won’t take that as a compliment. Like most admirers of Donald Trump, like teachers who believe they are underpaid, like people who believe that the sun is a fiery chariot driven by Apollo, etc., Talarico sincerely believes things that are not true.” (10/16/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/james-talarico-billionaires-capitalism/
- Expectations Matter. This Year’s Economics Nobel Explains Why.
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Hebert“Nobel laureates helped explain how expectations shape spending decisions, inflation, and the effectiveness of economic policy. Yes, that feels obvious.” (10/16/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/expectations-matter-this-years-economics-nobel-explains-why/
- The Bible Doesn’t Prohibit Abortion
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“A religious undecided voter questioned James Talarico on abortion.” (10/16/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/the-bible-doesnt-prohibit-abortion
- Dostoevsky and the Mangione Mind
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jon Miltimore“An intelligent, attractive former student commits a ghastly murder, reasoning that he is doing society a favor by ridding the world of a greedy capitalist. He is eventually taken into custody by authorities, jailed, and tried. This scenario does not describe Luigi Mangione, the affluent 28-year-old who recently admitted to killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024 in an apparent message to the health-insurance industry. The tale is far older: it describes Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s nineteenth-century masterpiece Crime and Punishment.” (10/16/26)
- A Perfect Economic Storm
Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner“On Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index for September came in hotter than expected. Inflation was up at an annual rate of 3.7 percent. Gasoline prices rose 34 percent over the past year, and home heating oil is up a staggering 74 percent. Combined with other factors, this news spooked the stock market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell by 2.7 percent. Then on Thursday, the Producer Price Index (PPI) report clocked a wholesale price rise of 1.3 percent just in September, an increase of 6.3 percent over the past year, and the largest 12-month increase since December 2022. The other factors signaling deep trouble include a bond market that keeps bidding up rates on long-term Treasury securities, now the highest since 2002, reflecting expectations of more inflation, and increasing interest costs throughout the economy. This in turn adds to consumer and small-business pain and increases borrowing costs for the heavily leveraged tech sector.” (10/16/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/16/perfect-economic-storm-trump-inflation/
- The Third Rail Is Dead
Source: Independent Institute
by Alex Tokarev & Kristin Tokarev“Everyone knows the math is getting worse. Americans are living longer. Birth rates are falling. Fewer workers are supporting more retirees. The Social Security trustees project the program’s trust funds will be depleted in the early 2030s, leaving payroll taxes insufficient to pay all scheduled benefits unless Congress acts. Yet every election brings the same warning: Don’t touch my Social Security! That’s why President Donald Trump’s reported interest in Australia’s retirement system matters. Not because Australia has discovered the silver bullet for that fiscal monster. Because someone in Washington is finally asking whether a retirement system designed during the Great Depression is still the best America can do in the 21st century.” (10/16/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/16/the-third-rail-is-dead/
- More Wealth Creators Needed
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“So, what good are the rich? Sumner had the good common sense to understand what so many do not understand today: ‘The great gains of a great capitalist in a modern state must be put under the head of wages of superintendence. Any one who believes that any great enterprise of an industrial character can be started without labor must have little experience of life.'” (10/16/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-more-wealth-creators-needed
- Six Meta Problems That Should Be Issues in the Election, But Are Not
Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer“I have not blogged for a while but recently I have allowed all the election advertising to get under my skin. The solution sets being discussed — to the extent any solutions are discussed rather than just promoting fear of the other team –are so divorced from any sensible analysis of cause and effect that it is almost intolerable to even listen. For this article, I have taken real things people have expressed concern about in this election cycle and I have proposed six meta issues that are closer to the true causes of people’s concerns. Of course, none of this is being discussed by anyone on either side in this election.” (10/16/26)
- The Depth of Digger
Source: Law & Liberty
by Emina Melonic“Tom Cruise may possibly be the biggest movie star in the world. His career has been a constant stream of blockbusters spanning more than four decades. Cruise has historically made excellent decisions in picking his projects, but his newest film, Digger (2026), is certainly a departure from anything we’ve seen Tom Cruise do on the silver screen. But that’s not all—Digger is a departure from cinema as we have known it, at least in the years since Covid broke out. The headlines mostly dismiss the film as a box office flop. The film critics are not helping the matter either. They don’t like it, at all. Yet in the last few days after its opening, the chatter among the people in real life and social media has been quite positive.” (10/16/26)
- Why Can Nothing Be Built in Britain?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad“A public company in the UK was building a high-speed railway when it suddenly faced a regulation that few could have predicted: a £100 million ($132 million) bat tunnel. The railway passed through Sheephouse Wood, an area inhabited by rare Bechstein’s bats. To comply with environmental regulations that protect the bats from colliding with high-speed trains, the company had to build a roughly one-kilometer covered structure alongside the railway. This structure has since become widely known in the UK as the ‘bat tunnel.’ If you think this is just one case, let me tell you about the fish disco.” (10/16/26)
https://fee.org/articles/why-can-nothing-be-built-in-britain/
- There’s a Reason Black Voters in Detroit Don’t Like Abdul
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“I don’t know where you grew up, but I grew up six blocks north of the Detroit border and one block south of 8 Mile Road, ‘on the bad side’. It wasn’t bad when I was a kid, or at least not as bad, and as I got older, I spent more time in the city. I went to college downtown at Wayne State and lived for a time in the Cass Corridor, back when that was not a place you wanted to be (it’s quite different now). I saw firsthand why there is distrust and dislike between black Detroiters and Arabs in the city, and I’m kind of surprised no one has talked about it in regard to why Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is doing so horribly with black voters.” (10/17/26)
- I’ve Rediscovered Why I Became a Doctor
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon“I have been a doctor for over 40 years. I have cared for patients in their most critical moments, seen families face unexpected diagnoses, and made split-second decisions in intensive care where every second counted. I have witnessed both remarkable recoveries and painful losses. I have taught new doctors, published research, and worked on treatments to help people I might never meet. All this time, I thought I knew what it meant to be a physician. When Covid began, something shifted in me. It didn’t happen all at once or because of one argument with an administrator or a policy. It was a slow realization that grew as I kept caring for sick people.” (10/16/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/ive-rediscovered-why-i-became-a-doctor/
- Europeans shouldn’t throw out the truck with the diesel deal
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Zachary Paikin“As the U.S. midterms approach, headlines regarding the Ukraine war are emerging at breakneck pace. But amid the noise and recurring outrage, the fundamental dilemma has not changed: how can the United States build up a self-sustaining European equilibrium that maximizes Washington’s room for maneuver in an increasingly multipolar world? Achieving a comprehensive settlement to the war in Ukraine is a necessary, albeit insufficient, part of the answer. European leaders perceive Russia’s war of aggression not just as a security threat but as a fundamental breach of the post-Cold War continental compact. It will not soon be forgotten. As long as the fighting continues — and even in the event of a ceasefire that leaves deeper political cleavages unaddressed — Europe and Russia will not arrive at a stable balance of power on their own.” (10/16/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/europe-ukraine-peace-talks/
- Russia’s gray shadow over the Black Sea
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“The European Union’s long project to build the continent into a fortified zone of peace and prosperity has hit a new pitfall. Over the past two weeks, the war in Ukraine has expanded far into the Black Sea. Several merchant ships carrying grain and other civilian cargo were struck by drones – widely viewed as Russian – off the shores of two NATO members, Bulgaria and Romania. Nearly two dozen sailors from many countries were either killed or are missing. ‘The Kremlin is testing the EU and Nato, and will act depending on the results of the testing,’ a popular Ukrainian blogger, Boryslav Bereza, wrote on Facebook.” (10/16/26)
- Cook Case Tests the Limits of Fed Independence
Source: The Daily Economy
by Alexander W Salter“Trump’s effort to fire a Fed governor may be political interference, but it exposes a real problem: central bankers exercise enormous power with little accountability for their mistakes.” (10/16/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/cook-case-tests-the-limits-of-fed-independence/
- Housing NIMBYs may be more confused than selfish
Source: hypertext
by Matt Grossman“Data centers have quickly become very unpopular, with more than 70 percent of Americans now opposing the construction of one in their area. It’s tempting to assume these attitudes are driven by anxiety over artificial intelligence, and as such have little relevance for housing debates. But data center skeptics are far more likely to mention environmental, cost of living, and quality of life concerns than negative views of AI. Many of these critiques are familiar to anyone who has attended public meetings about any residential or commercial development (right down to complaints about the size, noise, and traffic). In other words, the data center backlash … is in many respects just an amplified version of normal anti-development politics.” (10/16/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/housing-nimbys-may-be-more-confused
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/18/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Wants Netanyahu To ‘Finish the Job’ Against Iran, Saudis Kill More Civilians in Yemen and More.” (10/18/26)
- Unattended Baggage, episode 359
Source: Unattended Baggage
“I can’t go for that (no can do).” (10/17/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-359-i-cant-go-for-that-no
- Free Talk Live, 10/17/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Quoting Shakespeare and considering the Shakespearian conspiracy theories :: There’s a lot of jobs in government that Nobody should do :: Are Boomers at fault? :: in 2020, Trump printed 90% of all dollars ever printed :: Mark believes the government can steal your property because it’s theirs :: Caller Derek’s ghost story! :: Government is just the idea of giving a corporation a monopoly on violence and making it only accountable to itself :: Kids for Cash and will accountability ever come? :: 2026-10-17 Hosts: Bonnie, Nobody, Lori and Mark Edge.” (10/17/26)
- The Political Orphanage, 10/16/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“How Immigration Broke German Politics.” (10/16/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/how-immigration-broke-german-politics
- Serious Trouble, 10/16/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Schrodinger’s Lawyer.” (10/16/26)
- Libertarian Angle, 10/16/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Horrors and Fallacies of Socialism.” (10/16/26)
- The Good Fight, 10/17/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Eliot Cohen on Why America Keeps Losing Wars It Should Win.” (10/17/26)
- TAC Right Now, 10/16/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Andrew Day and Luke Nicastro discuss the Trump-Putin diesel deal, the Trump-Zelensky spat, the ‘energy ceasefire’ that wasn’t, Ukraine’s grim prospects this winter, and a new book on progressive foreign policy edited by Matt Duss, A World for All.” (10/16/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tac-right-now-trump-turns-on-zelensky/
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 10/17/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Our Populist Hissy Fit Needs to Stop | Ruminant.” (10/17/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/our-populist-hissy-fit-needs-to-stop-ruminant/
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 10/16/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Bombs, Backroom Deals & Blowback, Trump’s Iran Gamble and Kushner’s Private Diplomacy.” (10/16/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/16/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“President Trump’s choice of rejecting ‘America First’ is reaping a whirlwind of consequences.” (10/16/26)
- Freakonomics Radio, episode 691
Source: Freakonomics
“Is This What a ‘Good Billionaire’ Looks Like?” (10/16/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-this-what-a-good-billionaire-looks-like/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/16/26
Source: The New Republic
“Fox News Just Nuked Trump With His Most Disastrous Poll Yet.” (10/16/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/216718/fox-news-just-nuked-trump-disastrous-poll-yet
- The Anarchist Experience, episode 602
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich & Riley have to interface with The State. True Anarchists’ Experiences.” (10/16/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/10/16/the-anarchist-experience-602/
- Power and Market, 10/16/26
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
“The Great Social Security Ponzi Scheme.” (10/16/26)
https://mises.org/podcasts/power-and-market/great-social-security-ponzi-scheme
- Reason Interview: Fernando Ulrich
Source: Reason
“Bitcoin Is a Threat to Government-Controlled Money.” (10/16/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/16/bitcoin-is-a-threat-to-government-controlled-money/
- The Moynihan Report, 10/15/26
Source: The Moynihan Report
“Simon Sebag Montefiore: You’re (Probably) Wrong About the Middle East.” (10/15/26)
https://www.themoynihan.report/p/simon-sebag-montefiore-youre-probably
- Nonzero, 10/15/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“The AI Companion Question | Robert Wright & Paul Bloom.” (10/15/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/15/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Considers Using Mother of All Bombs in Iran, Ansar Allah Hits Aden Presidential Palace, and More.” (10/15/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/15/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Surprise! Blowing Up Boats Didn’t End ‘Narco-terrorism.'”